"NFL.com reports the 49ers blocked DBs coach Ed Donatell from interviewing for the Saints' defensive-coordinator vacancy.Teams can block assistants from interviewing for jobs below head coach. It's the second year in a row the 49ers have prevented Donatell from seeking a coordinator job, as the Bucs expressed interest last February."

I thought this was interesting because we've seen that Pete Carroll has been very supportive in letting his coaches and execs interview around the league. He even let Wash take the same job at a different team. What do you guys think of Harbaugh's approach? Fair or selfish? Would Carroll have done the same thing?

Last edited by DavidSeven on Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I think it can seriously backfire on a coach. When you deny a person the right to seek to better themselves, they can easily turn that into resentment, which is something that does not bode well for job performance.

Pete let Quinn go, and he was able to garner valuable experience, and is now coming back having more experience to draw from. IMO, a guy like Quinn will be more willing to go that extra mile for the team and the coach while the guy like Donatell, may, without even realize it, hold back a little bit.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

I assumed that he would block his coaches from leaving, what a douche, they could of at least given him the option to leave then if he stayed re-upped his contract. There is no coach salary cap, so it's cheap skating your positional coaches. I hope this becomes a Jets type of train wreck next year.

I don't know that it would impact the coach's "performance". He wants to win and show himself off to sign somewhere else when his contract is up, but I would definitely think that it would impact their ability to attract young and up-and-coming coaches to get hired on to the team. A coach would probably think twice about coaching for that team knowing that they may block him from progressing in his career.

I guess you could look at it like the coach just holding his position coaches to the same standard as the players. You signed a contract here, you stay here until it is up or until you are fired.

When a player is wanted by another team, they are not allowed to jump ship...even if it is for a promotion to more playing time. Now when a 49er player whines that he wants out of his contract, Harbaugh can say "nope, you signed a deal. Just like the coaches."

There are multiple ways to look at it. It's not just "Harbaugh is being mean".

HawkFan72 wrote:I guess you could look at it like the coach just holding his position coaches to the same standard as the players. You signed a contract here, you stay here until it is up or until you are fired.

When a player is wanted by another team, they are not allowed to jump ship...even if it is for a promotion to more playing time. Now when a 49er player whines that he wants out of his contract, Harbaugh can say "nope, you signed a deal. Just like the coaches."

There are multiple ways to look at it. It's not just "Harbaugh is being mean".

Yeah, but coaches don't have a union to protect their asses either.

Who do you think will have an easier time attracting good assistant coaches in the future, Pete or Jim?

Fine that is their right. Every other team in the league will tell this to guys if they are trying to hire them. We are hiring you as an OL coach and you are considering SF - so make sure you are happy with being an OL coach for the duration of the contract........

Harbs is so going to flame out big time. Fangio and Roman are going to get HC gigs at some point (if the 9'ers weren't in the SB, it probably would have happened this year) and Harbs will be exposed for the lack luster coach he is. No good talent is going to want to work under him because he's clearly a lunatic. The public embarassment of the .500 then losing seasons will drive him nuts and he'll go off the deep end, likely in public (i'm thinking at a press conference or an Applebee's).

It's going to be glorious to see. GLORIOUS!

God I hate Harbaugh. Not just sports hate. I think I REALLY hate him. Like "I want him to go bankrupt and end up living under an overpass" kind of hate. Screw that guy. Screw him right in his face hole. Screw him right in the face hole with a righteous pecker of justice!

FREE PEHAWK

Sac>CANI love Sac with all my heart, and wish I were half as handsome as he.^I know this is here, but leaving it b/c YOLO.

CANHawk wrote:Harbs is so going to flame out big time. Fangio and Roman are going to get HC gigs at some point (if the 9'ers weren't in the SB, it probably would have happened this year) and Harbs will be exposed for the lack luster coach he is. No good talent is going to want to work under him because he's clearly a lunatic. The public embarassment of the .500 then losing seasons will drive him nuts and he'll go off the deep end, likely in public (i'm thinking at a press conference or an Applebee's).

It's going to be glorious to see. GLORIOUS!

God I hate Harbaugh. Not just sports hate. I think I REALLY hate him. Like "I want him to go bankrupt and end up living under an overpass" kind of hate. Screw that guy. Screw him right in his face hole. Screw him right in the face hole with a righteous pecker of justice!

But his big bother said psycho Jimmy is the " best coach in the NFL," so you must be mistaken.

Yeah, he really just screwed over the chances of Donatell, or any other position coaches for that matter, re-signing with the team again. He's been stopped not once, but twice from pursuing other endeavors for possibly a better salary. I don't know about you guys but if that'd be me, I'd seriously be pissed off that someone's screwing with my possible financial gains and family's well-being.

We were also probably going to try and pursue their DL coach Jim Tomsula but probably won't since this 7 year old boy trapped in a 49 year old man's body won't let.

Wow...I thought at first this was about blocking him from interviewing during the playoffs (which I completely understand and wish Pete would've done) But he's really not allowing his coaches to seek a promotion elsewhere? At all? That's messed up

The Bears did this with Martz and Tice if I remember correctly a couple years ago or last season with Tice. It has been done before. I thought if it was an promotion that teams wouldn't get in the way but I see that isn't the case.

Throwdown wrote:Couldn't Donatell just resign from the team and pursue the Saints DC position?

Ahh, to be honest your guess is as good as mine's. LOL.

drdiags wrote:The Bears did this with Martz and Tice if I remember correctly a couple years ago or last season with Tice. It has been done before. I thought if it was an promotion that teams wouldn't get in the way but I see that isn't the case.

From what I keep hearing online and on the radio, teams can't block teams requesting interviews only if it's for a head coaching job. I learned the NFL only recognizes two types of coaches, head coaches and assistants. Therefore, it's considered a "lateral move", going from one assistant job to another.

It's been much discussed on SaintsReport, and I find it's a stupid rule to be honest. If you think about it, there should be at least 3 levels of coaches: head coach, then coordinators, then position coaches. It's not a lateral move, because then you're going from coaching one set of guys (DB's in Donatell's case) to a whole side of the ball. It's like saying that going from a field officer to a general in the military isn't a promotion.

Throwdown wrote:Couldn't Donatell just resign from the team and pursue the Saints DC position?

I would guess his contract prohibits this.

Even if it didn't, it'd be a pretty foolish move unless he was all but guaranteed the job. No way to get that kind of assurance without an interview, which the Niners won't grant. It'd probably be tampering otherwise.

Throwdown wrote:Couldn't Donatell just resign from the team and pursue the Saints DC position?

That would make sense, if the Saints told him he was a shoo-in for the DC job. Otherwise he could get screwed having no job at all! Something tells me though that Goddell would raise a stink over something like this...not going through a "fair and equitable" hiring process if the Saints did that.

I was under the impression that this really isn't that uncommon, SF is more following the trend than anything. Pete Carroll said in his book that the same thing happened to him when he was coaching with the Vikings and it pissed him off, so he's always allowed his coaches to interview at other jobs and take the chance to advance their coaching career.

Much ado about nothing, Donatell is being groomed for the coordinator job in SF once Fangio leaves so it only makes good sense and Donatell isnt complaining in the least because he knows it. Plus the Saints are only kicking tires, we all know who they are going to hire.

It is interesting that anyone is looking to bring Donatell back to the D-Coordinator position. Every season he was the D-Coordinator for Green Bay and then Atlanta, his defenses finished worse than they were the previous season.

Goldrush wrote:Much ado about nothing, Donatell is being groomed for the coordinator job in SF once Fangio leaves so it only makes good sense and Donatell isnt complaining in the least because he knows it. Plus the Saints are only kicking tires, we all know who they are going to hire.

Maybe he is genuinely okay with it and maybe he isn't, but honestly, what else could he possibly say in public? He would jeopardize his shot at the Niners DC job and all others by whining about the situation.

Goldrush wrote:Much ado about nothing, Donatell is being groomed for the coordinator job in SF once Fangio leaves so it only makes good sense and Donatell isnt complaining in the least because he knows it. Plus the Saints are only kicking tires, we all know who they are going to hire.

Maybe he is genuinely okay with it and maybe he isn't, but honestly, what else could he possibly say in public? He would jeopardize his shot at the Niners DC job and all others by whining about the situation.

CANHawk wrote:Harbs is so going to flame out big time. Fangio and Roman are going to get HC gigs at some point (if the 9'ers weren't in the SB, it probably would have happened this year) and Harbs will be exposed for the lack luster coach he is. No good talent is going to want to work under him because he's clearly a lunatic. The public embarassment of the .500 then losing seasons will drive him nuts and he'll go off the deep end, likely in public (i'm thinking at a press conference or an Applebee's).

It's going to be glorious to see. GLORIOUS!

God I hate Harbaugh. Not just sports hate. I think I REALLY hate him. Like "I want him to go bankrupt and end up living under an overpass" kind of hate. Screw that guy. Screw him right in his face hole. Screw him right in the face hole with a righteous pecker of justice!

losing seasons? is it because the QB that reached the superbowl for us is 25? I dont even..

kidhawk wrote:I think it can seriously backfire on a coach. When you deny a person the right to seek to better themselves, they can easily turn that into resentment, which is something that does not bode well for job performance.

Pete let Quinn go, and he was able to garner valuable experience, and is now coming back having more experience to draw from. IMO, a guy like Quinn will be more willing to go that extra mile for the team and the coach while the guy like Donatell, may, without even realize it, hold back a little bit.

I agree. The organization thought very highly of Quinn but let him depart on good terms only to have him back later as our defensive coordinator. I can't wait to see what Quinn does to improve our defense, especially the line, and we have him back on staff due in part to the classy way we treat those who depart the organization.

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

For those of you that view this as a douche move, then the Franchise tag is considered to be worse concept than what Harbaugh did. Would you guys think it would still be a douche move if a player like Browner, holds out for more money?

HawkFan72 wrote:I guess you could look at it like the coach just holding his position coaches to the same standard as the players. You signed a contract here, you stay here until it is up or until you are fired.

When a player is wanted by another team, they are not allowed to jump ship...even if it is for a promotion to more playing time. Now when a 49er player whines that he wants out of his contract, Harbaugh can say "nope, you signed a deal. Just like the coaches."

There are multiple ways to look at it. It's not just "Harbaugh is being mean".

Carmon1274 wrote:For those of you that view this as a douche move, then the Franchise tag is considered to be worse concept than what Harbaugh did. Would you guys think it would still be a douche move if a player like Browner, holds out for more money?

HawkFan72 wrote:I guess you could look at it like the coach just holding his position coaches to the same standard as the players. You signed a contract here, you stay here until it is up or until you are fired.

When a player is wanted by another team, they are not allowed to jump ship...even if it is for a promotion to more playing time. Now when a 49er player whines that he wants out of his contract, Harbaugh can say "nope, you signed a deal. Just like the coaches."

There are multiple ways to look at it. It's not just "Harbaugh is being mean".

This is true.

There is a big difference between the two. In recieving the franchise tag you are well compensated. Second if its not douchebaggery than why is Harbaugh the only coach I've ever heard of to do it. Im sure there have been others and they are douches too. Lastly how is a player wanting a raise to reflect his on field value equal to purposely blocking someone else's personal growth?

“Nothing is better than this. I’d give up the years of advancement to be a part of this. There is so much that goes along with it. This is the highest high. This is why you coach,” Donatell said, via CSNBayArea.com.

“Nothing is better than this. I’d give up the years of advancement to be a part of this. There is so much that goes along with it. This is the highest high. This is why you coach,” Donatell said, via CSNBayArea.com.

Dude wants to stay anyway.

That quote was from the week before he was denied a chance to interview.

As always, thank you for paying tribute to Steve Largent with your username.